Class Meeting Time & Location

TC310

INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION DESIGN

Autumn 2007

CLASS MEETING TIME & LOCATION

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9:30am to 10:50am

Loew 19: (the TC Computer Lab)

Go Post board:

INSTRUCTOR

Cynthia Putnam

Office: Engr. Annex- room206

Office hours: By appointment

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Professionals in technical communication use a wide variety of software tools to create print and digital documents. This course will introduce you to some of the popular tools used by TC professionals: Word, Photoshop, PowerPoint, Illustrator, Visio, Flash, and Dreamweaver. We will look at the functionality of these tools, the types of design activities that these tools support, and techniques for designing effective solutions with these tools. Knowledge of these tools makes TC graduates very competitive in the job market. Within this course, we will focus on techniques for rapidly learning these tools, for producing professional information design solutions using these tools, and we will learn about the nature of design within the TC profession.

REQUIRED MATERIALS & ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

Readings
Required:

Course pack: A course pack is available at the Ave Copy Center (4141 University Way NE, 206-633-1837).
Redish, Janice (Ginny). (2007) Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works. Elsevier: San Francisco, CA.
Optional (Reference only):

Meyer, Eric A. (2004). Cascading Style Sheets:The Definitive Guide, Second Edition. O’ Reilly Media: Sebastopol, CA.

Access to TC Computer Lab

The computers in the TC computer lab will provide you with access to the software tools for the class. Please speak to Carolynda Valerio-Lucas to get your personal lab door code and to get your account (username and password) on the TC computer network.

All of the software that you need for this class is available in the TC Computer Lab (Loew 19), which is open whenever the building is open, except when other classes are scheduled in the lab. Some of the packages are available in other computer labs on campus such as the Mary Gates computing center and the Odegaard Undergraduate Library. Some packages can be downloaded for a free 30-day trial and installed on your own computer. You may also wish to take advantage of the very reasonable educational discounts on some of these software packages; inquire at the University Bookstore Computing Store for prices and further information (your student ID is required for discounted purchases).

Access to the Internet

We will use a variety of web-based tools as part of this course. You will be required to access course materials via the course website, submit your assignments through the web, and participate in online discussions. As a result, you will need Internet access and your UWNetID. The specific Internet-based resources are listed below

Course website:

Portfolio:

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

This course has been designed to focus jointly on information design activities and on professional use of software tools. After participating in this course, you will be able to:

Use popular software tools effectively and professionally for technical communication activities.
You will learn how to use of modern software tools to accomplish common TC activities, which includes presentation management, print document design, interactive document design (i.e., Web design, help system design, PDF development), and graphics design (i.e., diagram design, information visualization). As is common in the professional arena, you will be able to produce professional quality solutions under tight deadlines, to design solutions with existing content, and design solutions such that they are reusable.

Use familiar strategies to learn new software tools.
Throughout the course, you will gain skills and strategies that will help you rapidly learn similar software tools in the future. You will gain understanding of common functionality in information design tools and Web site development tools.

Design effective solutions in response to common technical communication challenges.
You will develop the following skills:
Analysis of communication situations based on audience needs, the context in which the intended audience will use the information, and the purpose of the information.
The ability to make informed design decisions when creating information solutions by leveraging graph design, information architecture, interaction design, and usability principles.
The ability to critically evaluate the effectiveness of the design decisions that shape an information solution, and the ability to select the most promising solutions based.

Demonstrate knowledge of technical communication as a profession.
This course will enable you to characterize the challenges and concerns TC professional face when engaging in digital document design and websites. These include audience/user analysis, awareness of usability issues, familiarity with common document genres, and learning common guidelines for document development. Overall, these skills will prepare you to educate others about the TC profession, activity direct their own learning in the future, find a job, and work effectively in a TC-related career.

ADDITIONAL ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES

Your learning in this class is expected to lead to three additional outcomes. Participation in this course should also contribute to students’ abilities to:

Engage in professional TC discourse - engage in conversations with TC professionals in which a range of conceptual issues, product concerns, and software topics are discussed.
Identify TC learning issues- identify TC related issues that the student wishes to learn more about.
Envision job possibilities - describe a range of activities common to TC professionals and the job contexts in which such activities may occur.

ASSIGNMENTS / DUE DATES / GRADING

In this course, you will complete a variety of assignments designed to help you achieve the course learning objectives. The table below provides an overview of the assignments, the due dates, and associated percentage. Assignments are due at the beginning of class on the specified day. See late policy under the section on student responsibilities.

The following aspects of the course will determine your overall grade for this course:

Submission / Due Date / % Final Grade
Design assignments (7 total assignments)
- Solutions / Weekly-see schedule / 30 %
- Design rationale / Weekly-see schedule / 20 %
Design critique sessions
- Critiques on the go-post board / Weekly-see schedule / 5 %
- Critiques during presentations / Weekly-see schedule / 5 %
Culmination
- Professional website /portfolio / 03-Dec-07 / 20 %
- Learning portfolio / 14-Dec-07 / 10 %
Class and groupcontributions and /participation / Weekly-see schedule / 10 %

Design Assignments

The bulk of our class time will focus on 8 design assignments. Each design assignment will allow you to become familiar with a new software package that you will learn during the weekly tutorial/workshop. Each design assignment allow you to learn a new software package or technology, learn information design techniques, and apply what your have learned to solve a communication problem. Equally important, each assignment requires that you write a design rationale that justifies your key design decisions and that you participate in a design critique session. The schedule and individual aspects the assignments are described below.

Design solutions
Each week you will use a new tool/technology (e.g., Visio, Photoshop, etc.) to create a solution to a technical communication challenge. New challenges will be handed out each week in class and posted online to the course website. You will be responsible for analyzing the communication needs in each challenge and designing a solution (e.g., a help system, a web page) that meets those needs. As a technical communication course, this course stresses usablesolutionsthatsuccessfully address audience needs, the audience’s context of use, and the purpose of the communication event.

For some assignments you will create your solution under the context of a role-playing scenario in which you have been hired by a technical communication department of an organization. For others you will consider your professional portfolio website in addition to the role playing scenario. You will be working as part of a team of interns and group assignments will happen during the first week of class. Your team will select an organization at the beginning of the term and complete all assignments in the context of that organization.

While these assignments will be primarily individual assignments, each will require some coordination with a team. The solutions must fulfill all technical requirements and team/branding requirements, as well as be usable and effective. For each assignment, you will submit a solution as well as a written rationale (see next section). These two elements of the assignment will be graded separately.

The specific tools, assignments, and their due dates are listed below.

Assignment descriptionDue Date

Design assignment 1: Poster / PowerPoint 08-Oct-07

Design assignment 2: Document design / Word15-Oct-07

Design assignment 3: Site Maps / Visio22-Oct-07

Design assignment 4: Wireframes / Illustrator29-Oct-07

Design assignment 5: Graphics / Photoshop07-Nov-07

Design assignment 6: Webpage / HTML14-Nov-07

Design assignment 7: Photoshoptreatment web-

based professional portfolio21-Nov-07

Design assignment 8: Simple CSS/ Dreamweaver 21-Nov-07

---this assign graded pass/fail only

Professional Portfolio with /simple Flash03-Dec-07

FINAL – Learning Portfolio12-Dec-05

Design rationale

Professional designers are frequently called on to explain their solutions and the rationale behind the decisions in their solutions. This is important when sharing a solution with co-workers and clients, when engaging in a design review, and/or when determining how to evaluate the solution. The design rationale will provide you a place to document the reasoning associated with your solution.

A complete design rationale will identify the key features of your solution, identify key design decisions represented in the solution, and explain the thinking behind one or more of the design decisions (the alternatives you considered, why you chose the one you did). An effective design rationale for a TC professional will clearly show the link between the solution features and the user/audience analysis. The goal of the design rationale is not to exhaustively capture your design reasoning. Rather, the goal is for you to demonstrate your awareness of the key features of your solution. A design rationale provide the following:

Who is the primary audience(s)?How will the artifact be used?
What does the audience know? What is the audience looking for? What do they need to know?
What kinds of questions are your audience asking when they look at your document/website and howdoes your design and writing effectively convey the answers to those questions?
What kinds of issues did you consider as you made your design decisions? What are the major elements of your design and why did you make the choices you did?
Your reflection on what you think works well – and/or what does not work well. What other issues need to be considered if you were to continue working on this project?

See the grading rubric below for more details.

Design critique sessions – Presentations and questions

Each week, we will explore a subset of the “just submitted” solutions. These sessions will provide students with the opportunity to practice in presenting and justifying solutions, recognizing alternative solutions, asking questions about solutions, and thinking critically about solutions. Teams will sign up for presentation dates at the beginning of the quarter.

Each design critique sessions will consist of following activities:

Presentations: a group (3-4 students) will formally present their solutions for consideration by the class and will take general questions from the instructor or other classmates. This presentation should be an oral, interactive version of their design rationale.

Critical evaluation: Each presenter will team up with 2 or more students from other teams in front of a computer workstation. Together, they will evaluate the effectiveness of the solution, identify what makes the solution usable, and suggest possible usability improvements.
Report: Each group will report the findings of their evaluation back to the class. Students should use design principles from the readings and lecture when reporting their analysis to the rest of the class.

Weekly Readings and Discussion

Through weekly readings and interactive lectures, you will be introduced to a range of information design concepts that are important in Technical Communication. Schedulesare included in this syllabus.

Discussion Contributions

Readings pertaining to technical communication design concepts will be assigned each week. Each week a different team will be asked to bring examples related to the readings and topic for the week for a whole group discussion.

Peer Critique

Each week you will be asked to look at two other students work through Catalyst portfolio and give a short critique. I will provide a schedule in the second week. The critique must include comments on at least one item executed well and one item you feel could be better. You need to relate your explanation to the class readings, discussions and the grading rubrics. The critiques will be seen ONLY by the recipient student; however, if you do not receive two students critique I expect you to let me know.You will be responsible for completing your critiques before 5PM each Thursday. Critiquing other’s work will help develop your own design language and evaluation skills.

Participation

The structure of this course relies greatly on the contribution of the students. In addition to completing assignments and contributing to the debriefing sessions, you will be called upon to participate in additional class activities and assignments.

Cumulative Final Projects

Professional Portfolio

At the end of the quarter you will develop portfolios providing a synthesis of your class efforts. In the professional portfolio assignment, you will be asked to design and develop a custom web-based professional portfolio. At minimum, a high quality professional portfolio will be one that satisfies standard usability criteria, conforms to standards for effective communication, and succeeds in making and supporting claims about the professional skills of the person who created the portfolio.

Learning Portfolio

In the final assignment of the course (replacing the role of a final exam), you will be asked to develop a portfolio that demonstrates your achievement relative to the learning objectives of the class and your own experiences. You will be asked to do this using E-portfolio. At minimum, a high quality learning portfolio will be one that conforms to standards for effective communication, and succeeds in making and supporting claims about the learning achieved by the person who created the portfolio.